The Now
by True.Royal.Chaos
Summary: What if time was just a lie? What if there is no such thing as the past and future, but just the now? Everything we've believed in has been a lie. The past isn't behind you and the future isn't far ahead of you. A group of strangers comes across a find of a lifetime. They find time itself. Gateways leading to one time to another.


Colleen moves through her apartment, trying to get ready for classes. She has only one converse on, her skinny jeans were bunched up on one leg, her tight black tank top was rolled up to above her belly button, exposing her honey tan skin, and her raven black hair was falling out of her ponytail and around her face, hiding her dark brown eyes. She groans as she hears her doorbell. "Hold on!" She shouts as she gives up trying to find her other shoe and dashes for the door. On the way there she trips over the said lost object. She falls with a yelp. "Owie." She whines as she holds up the evil converse. "Curse you, shoe."

"Are you talking to a shoe now, Collie? You really have lost it." Colleen looks up to see her younger brother standing before her. Connor Temple. The only thing that they share is the dark hair, everything else Connor got from their mother.

"Shut up and help me up, nerd." He rolls his green eyes and grabs her outstretched hand, helping her to her feet. "Thank you." She pulls her tank top down again and fixes her jeans before grabbing her shoe. She slips the gray converse on and ties it up before fixing her hair.

"You're a hot mess."

"Alarm didn't go off." She explains as she slips on her red flannel and grabs her back. "Walk and talk, Con, I'm late for class." They walk out of Colleen's apartment and heads down the many flights of stairs.

"When are you going to get over your fear of elevators." Connor says breathlessly as they hurry down at least eleven flights of stairs.

"It keeps me in good shape, Con." It's true too; Colleen isn't even tired, breathless, or sweaty from this. She has kept thin and muscular from doing this at least five times a day. It's probably great too with how much the young woman eats daily, none of it at all fat-free. If it weren't for these stairs, Colleen would be as big as an elephant.

"Sure..." Connor pants as they finally reach the door.

"So what did you want?"

"You'ra e... friend... Noel is... friends... with..." Connor breaks off, hands on his knees and panting for breath. "Stephen Hart, right?" He finishes.

"They're roommates, why?"

"I have something that might interest Stephen's boss."

"You mean, Nick Cutter? Noel tells me he's a tough man to impress or interest."

"Well, look at this." Connor hands her a newspaper, causing her to raise an eyebrow.

"Connor, you can't even tell what this is. It could be a bunch of kids in a costume for all we know." Connor frowns as Colleen dismisses him. She heads to her car and opens the door. "Want a ride to school or not?"

"Can you talk to Noel and ask if I could talk to Cutter?"

"Con, I'm not asking Noel to talk to him. If you want to talk to him, then go find him, but I thought we agreed you'd get serious this year."

"I am serious." Colleen rolls her eyes. Connor is a good looking guy, and he's brilliant, but he believes in such crazy ideas and obsesses over such stupid things that no girl would ever spare him the time of day. That's just the big stuff; there's still the wardrobe and messy hair to add to the list of reasons why people think of Connor as some dorky loser. No girl wants a guy with messy hair and poor wardrobe ideas. I mean, what is on his head, a fedora or a top hat? Colleen shook her head. She has been trying to help for years, but she's beginning to think he's beyond help.

"Just get in the car, Connor." After their parents passed away, Colleen swore to look after Connor, but it wasn't an easy task. It feels like most of her life was spent watching out for her kid brother. He's only twenty-three, while Colleen is twenty-five years old. She was going places, but Connor was going nowhere. His grades are good, but he has no significant or purpose. He was going to school because Colleen wants him to get an education and meet new people, but so far he is still going the same way as before.

Colleen has a life for herself. She is going to Central Metropolitan University for med school, and within the next year, she will become a full blown doctor. She has no boyfriend as of lately, but she has a good size apartment, a job at a local clinic that pays well, and a best friend (Noel) that would do anything for her. She met Noel back in her freshman year at CMU. He saved her from a slippery floor, ever since they've been best friends. He is a few years older than her, twenty-seven, but they've been together for a while now. They're just friends, despite everyone thinking otherwise, and Colleen wasn't going to ask him a big favor like this for her brother and one of his crazy theories. If Connor wanted to talk to Nick Cutter than he'd have to find his own way to go about doing it.

* * *

Noel walks out of the bathroom in only jeans. He was towel drying his hair as Stephen made them breakfast. Noel met Stephen through Nick. Nick had been a student of Noel's father's back in the day and became friends. Noel met Nick through his dad and through Nick he met Stephen. His dad was a Paleontologist and Paleobotanist. He taught Nick in Paleontologist before Nick switched to evolutionary zoology. He's also Noel's teacher. Noel's going to school for Paleontology and Evolutionary Zoology. He met Stephen almost eight years ago, and they've grown close. Stephen needed a place a couple of years back, and Noel needed a roommate, so that is how they've gotten to living together. They have a system, Stephen makes their meals and Noel cleans the place. They both do their part.

"Hey, so Cutter called, he's going to give us a ride." Stephen tells Noel as he looks up from flipping pancakes.

"Great. I just need to finish getting dressed."

"Hey, your friend, Colleen? Is she single by any chance." Noel rolls his eyes as he throws his towel into the hamper.

"Yes, but she's not available for you."

"I thought you were just friends."

"We are just friends, but you have a girlfriend and Colleen isn't a one-night kind of girl. She's too good for you." Stephen chuckles, not being able to argue.

"She's still good looking. Why aren't you hitting that again?"

"She's like a sister, that's why. You don't sleep with your sister." Stephen cringes at the thought. Noel grabs his shirt from the back of the couches and pauses. "But she is your type."

"And you know my type?" Stephen asks.

"Dark hair, dark eyes, tan skin. Thin, full, if you know what I mean," Stephen grins. "Has a spark to her and brilliant."

"So, you're going to hook me up?"

"Hmm..." Noel pauses for a minute, thinking, but he was just joking. "Not a chance."

"But you thought about it."

"Got to give you some hope." Noel grins as he hops onto the bar stool. "But, seriously, don't. We have rules, Stephen for a reason."

"But she's not technically-

"Tchnicallities don't matter," Noel says. "We don't sleep with sisters, wives, or crushes. She's like a sister, so back off."

"Fine, fine. But, I'm just saying, you best watch out because she's hot and someone's going to notice finally." Noel rolls his eyes.

"Just drop it, Hart and give me food." Stephen laughs and pushes a plate to Noel.

"You're a pig you know that?" Noel shrugs and pushes a fork full of pancake into his mouth.

"One day a girl will love this pig." He says with a mouthful of food. Stephen cringes.

"Poor girl." Noel rolls his eyes and sips his milk.

"Poor Allison." Stephen's smile's gone and Noel frowns. "Sorry, too far."

"No, it's fine." They both knew Noel's thoughts on Stephen cheating on Allison, but it's not all Stephen's fault. Allison ditched him for field work. She didn't even ask if Stephen wanted to come with her. She can't actually expect Stephen not to cheat. Too little of sex isn't good for a man. He needs sex, it's impossible for a guy to not have any. Jerking off only gets you so far and in the end, it mostly leaves you even more frustrated. Noel didn't blame Stephen because it wasn't just Stephen's fault.

"Why don't you just break up with her? Then you wouldn't feel guilty and I wouldn't bother you."

"I don't know." Noel frowns and looks at Stephen. There's still a lot Noel doesn't know about Stephen, but pushing for answers gets no one anywhere, so Noel decides to drop the topic.

"When's Cutter arriving."

"In half an hour, so hurry up."

"Yes, sir." Noel says before stuffing his face so more. Stephen rolls his eyes and begins eating his eggs and toast. Stephen didn't eat junk food, but Noel couldn't live without it, so most times Stephen has to cook two different meals for them. "Good as always." Noel says as he puts his dishes in the sink before washing his hands and face from any syrup that could have gotten on him.

"So... Colleen-"

"Not happening." Stephen laughs as Noel smiles. "But, there is this girl from my first class."

"Oh really?"

"Yup, totally your type."

* * *

Colleen get out of her car as Connor gathers all his things. "You have a backpack for a reason, Con, use it." She says, but halfway through telling him he takes off running down the road. "Where are you going?"

"To find Professor Cutter before class." He calls back before running around the corner. Colleen sighs, running a hand through her hair. If she lets him go then he'll cause nothing, but trouble and Colleen doesn't want to trouble Noel.

"Shit." She curses before grabbing her bag and hurrying after him. "Wait up, idiot." She snaps, causing him to slow down only to speed up once she reached him. "You know, if you act like an idiot in front of them I'm killing you."

"Colleen, look-"

"I've seen it Connor. I've seen past the glamor and words. I looked between the words and I see it as it is. Why can't you?"

"Why did you change." Colleen stops and looks at Connor.

"What are you talking about?"

"Before mom and dad died you used to be my partner. You used to believe in this with me. We used to have star war marathons and play D&D every weekend. What happened, Collie?"

"I grew up Connor. I realized we couldn't stay a kid forever. After mom and dad died it was me, an eighteen-year-old girl taking care of her brother who acted as if he was still ten. I didn't have an option to just relax the weekend away playing D&D. I didn't have the luxury to waste my entire day watching all six of the star wars movies. I had to get a job, pay for college, pay bills. I had to take care of us. I grew up, Connor and this-" She rips the newspaper from his hands. "This is a joke, Connor. There are no such things as monsters, no creatures going around killing people. It's a hoax just like everything else you think is real. There was never the yeti, bigfoot, Nessie, nothing. It is all a hoax. You need to grow up Connor! I've tried to help you and be gentle, but I'm done. You're twenty-three years old and you still playing D&D and wasting your days watching tv and playing video games. You have no job, no girlfriend, no future. You need to grow up. I can't-I won't take care of you for the rest of my life!" Connor is silent as he looks at Colleen and she can see the pain and hurt in his eyes. She's terrible, but she has been trying to get Connor to understand this since their parents' death. She tried to be gentle, she tried to give him time and space, she tried the nice way, but it doesn't work. Being mean and harsh maybe the only way to get him to grow up.

"Mom and dad would have listened to me." That's like a punch to the gut as Connor tells Colleen that. Their parents had always been for them and always told them to embrace who they are, but Colleen knows that this wasn't what they met. They wouldn't be proud of Connor wasting his life away on hoaxes and the world of the geek. They'd want him to follow in Colleen's footsteps and get a job, get a life, get a future.

"Connor-"

"I... I have to find the professor before... before he heads to class."

"Connor, look-" But he hurries off, not waiting for Colleen to finish speaking. She watches him go, pain filling her heart.

* * *

Noel hops out of the truck with Stephen and Nick. "I'm telling you, she was totally into you." Stephen tells Nick. The two had went to some conference this weekend and there had been a woman there that Stephen swears was into Nick.

"No... No she wasn't." Nick is in denial.

"Well, you do have those blue eyes." Noel grins, causing Cutter to laugh. Most people believe Noel's Nick's younger brother. They both have the sandy blonde hair, but Noel's hair is tightly curled and short. They both have the same magnificent baby blue eyes, but Noel's eyes have gold flecks in them. Both Nick and Noel have freckled skin that was beaten by the sun. Most of Noel's summer is spent in the field, digging up old fossils. They could pass as brothers due to how close in age they are. Nick is thirty-three, two years older than Stephen and six years older than Noel.

Some days Noel thinks Nick is his brother. He has known Nick before Helen, during Helen, and after Helen. He has been there with Nick through the worst and best times of the man's life. They were the brother that neither had. Nick was close to Stephen too, but Stephen only knew Nick the year before Helen disappeared. Noel knew Nick since he was fourteen and Nick was twenty.

"Noel, are you even listening?" Noel smiles at Stephen. For the past year, Stephen's been trying to hook Noel and Nick up, but they both were too stubborn. Neither did one-night stands and so far they haven't met any girl interesting enough to date. Noel was sure they'd find someone eventually, but he wasn't worried. It seems the person most worried about Nick and Noel's love life was Stephen.

"Stephen, what does it really matter. If Nick says no then no."

"Why do you always take his side? I'm your roommate."

"Yes, but I've known Nick longer, therefore he wins." Stephen rolls his eyes.

"You... You're both impossible."

"Great, he finally realized it, now can we move on?" Stephen shoots him a look.

"Professor!" They turn just as a boy falls, his papers going everywhere.

"Careful there." Cutter tells him before continuing on with Stephen. Noel eyes the kid over, he has seen him from somewhere before. "Noel, are you coming?" The boy's eyes meet Noel's before Noel looks away.

"Yup." He hurries off and catches back up with them, Stephen seemingly going back to talking about the girl, stubborn man. "For crying out loud, Stephen-"

"Professor Cutter!" Noel huffs and turns to see the boy from before running over.

"Yes, yes?" Cutter asks, distractedly.

"Connor Temple."

"Sorry. I've never heard of it." Noel's eyes widen, suddenly remembering where he saw this guy before. He was Colleen's little brother. "Um, I think you want Archaeology." Noel raises an eyebrow. Was Nick serious or was he just trying to get rid of the kid? "If you go around up there to the right and keep walking, it's on your left." Nick and Stephen points as Noel rolls his eyes. He honestly can't tell with Nick anymore and Stephen wasn't helping.

"No, it's not... It's not a place. It's my name. I'm one of your students." Now this Noel knows isn't true. Connor isn't taking any of Nick's classes.

"Really?" Nick asks as Noel shakes his head. Why was Colleen's little brother bothering them and where was she? Normally she was close by to monitor Connor.

"Uh-huh." Connor says.

"Well, why... why don't I recorgnise you?" Cutter asks. They all knew Nick's students, his classes were a lot of one on one with the faces. There isn't a single student Cutter, Stephen, and Noel doesn't know.

"Because he isn't your student. He's my friend's Colleen's little brother." Noel speaks up before Connor could. "If you're going to lie, lie better." He says before following the others up to Cutter's office, leaving Connor to either follow or take off. Of course, Connor follows.

"Don't touch anything." Cutter says as he walks into his office. "This is my laboratory technician, Stephen Hart and you already know my student, Noel West." Noel nods to Connor as he walks around the office. This was his favorite place in the school. There were fossils of so many awesome things in here and amazing bones of dinosaurs. Everywhere you look is something cool and unique.

"Oh, actually, that's my dissertation." Cutter holds up the pink foldered paper. "Yeah." Cutter looks it over. "See, I argued that all life on Earth derived from organisms carried here by alien spacecraft." Noel looks at Connor, as if to see if the kid was joking, but he wasn't.

"No wonder Colleen didn't show up with you." He mumbles under his breath as he sets his bag down.

"It's pretty sexy stuff." Nick throws the paper back in the trash, causing Noel to snort. "It's a work in progress, really."

"Tell me what this is." Cutter says as he holds out his most beloved fossil.

"A fish?" Noel rolls his eyes.

"Obviously." Noel can't help but say.

"It's a sarcopterygian. There's no trace of them in the fossil record for 70 million years, and then suddenly one of them just pops up in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Totally inexplicable in modern evolutionary terms." Noel smiles as Nick goes into teacher mode. His passion for this only makes Noel love Nick's classes more. "See, Darwin provides most of the answers. It's the pieces that don't fit that interests me."

"See, that's wnhy I was wondering whether you'd seen this." Noel moves over and see a newspaper of some blurry image of a monster. Noel raises an eyebrow. "Some sort of giant, undiscovered predator." Connor says as Nick hands the fossil over to Stephen in order to look at the paper. Nick looks at it with Noel before handing it over to Stephen. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no. This... This is the real thing." Connor says as he takes the paper and holds it up.

"Connor, you should get out more. Go to a bar, meet a nice girl. Life will seem a lot less confusing." Noel has to turn away to keep from laughing.

"I've already got a girlfriend. Sort of." Noel rolls his eyes remembering Colleen complaining about said 'girlfriend'. "That's not really the point. There's an eyewitness, claimed to have seen it."

"People claim to have seen the Loch Ness monster. It doesn't mean to say it's there."

"Aw, but I'm a fan of Nessie." Noel grins.

"Not now, obviously, because it died years ago." Noel looks at Connor, again trying to decide if he's joking. "The government, they took the body away and they covered the whole thing up."

"This is just a hoax. Forget it." Cutter says as Noel runs a hand through his curls.

"Your wife wouldn't have ignored it." Noel's head snaps up as he hears Connor. At this point, Noel didn't care if Connor was Colleen's little brother, he wasn't going to get away with saying that. Before Noel could speak, Nick did.

"My wife was a serious scientist. She wasn't some gullible monster hunter."

"Sorry."

"It's okay." Noel eyes narrowed on Connor. Nick might be able to forget that, but Noel sure as hell won't. Nick places a hand on Noel's shoulder, squeezing tightly to keep Noel from snapping at Connor.

"I just thought you might want to check it out, that's all." Connor smiles as Nick nods. "It's not as though the Forest of Dean is far away, though." Connor says, causing Noel to huff. The Forest of Dean, a place where the biggest animal is a boar and it's also the place Helen disappeared from.

"The Forest of Dean?" Cutter asks.

"If we leave now, we could be there by lunch." Stephen says. Nick looks at Noel, who rolls his eyes.

"Fine, but you're calling your sister and having her meet us there. If I have to be stuck with you, she's coming with." Noel says as he heads out with the others.


End file.
